That 3.9% unemployement was not productive.
The only thing that kept unemployment so low was the debt-fueled, high consumption economy that employed tens of millions of people in retail etc where they don't really add any tangible value.

Except that this supposed conundrum has been fussed over ever since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. ~200 years earlier than the 1960s. And yet, not more than 5-6 years ago, unemployment in the US was at about 3.9 percent.
It's possible that machines will begin designing and improving their designs on their own, in the future, to the point that human intervention in the actual production process will be counterproductive.
But then again, humans are willing to pay to watch sports, or at least some are. Others are willing to pay for other forms of entertainment, like going to the movies. Maybe robot machines will take over those functions too?
We're only in trouble if humans can't "add value" to anything.

Back in the 1960's they used to say, "in the future, everything would be made by machine and people would have tons of free time to pursue other interests, like art, sports, etc".
Well, we're almost there, with automation soon to be buiding everything. The problem is, economists are now scratching their heads wondering how to get money to the masses so they can actually buy the things that machines make.
So what we need is a way to distribute money to the public from the corporations that own the machines so the people can buy the items the machines produce (since people won't be needed).
And no one has a clue how to do this...

- A truly cheap and sustainable food production technology that every human society can afford to eradicate hunger for ever!
- A truly cheap and sustainable energy source that every human society can afford
That's the core of human needs...

You got me thinking with that portable force field.
And I'm thinking... what would happen if someone was grabbing you when you activate the force field? Would his hand be cut :( or would the force field have a way to include all living things touching the key fob's porter? Will the force field be only a sphere of a fixed radio or would the system make a 3d scanning of it's surroundings and cognitively determine what's the best shape and volume to assign to the force field?
Please provide a requirement's list so I can put a team to work right on it ;-).
I dreamed too with the Star Wars lighsaber, and with the Back to the future hoover board.
Including the portable force field, I think all these three inventions require the knowledge of something we humans have yet to discover. I think this will be related with the research on fundamental physics as it is currently being done in places like CERN where the next sub-particles are being sought. Strange new theories are in the minds of physicists these days. Some of these theories have to be confirmed in order to get us closer to this science fiction marvels.
Good challenge!

In the mythological stories that I read in my childhood, all those magical things had a curse. Just by uttering that curse the whole magic of the things would vanish or the thing could get destroyed in an instant if in the wrong hands
I wish engineers would have power to implant such magical keys in whatever they construct, invent to enable those things to self destroy in case of misuse

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